By KINIBIZ
So Aidilfitri came and went in a subdued manner. And the swathe of scandals and controversies have not slowed down.
Most recently, The Edge Media Group announced that the Home Ministry has issued a three-month suspension of its business weekly as well as its daily financial newspaper beginning July 27.
The reason, according to the ministry, is that the group’s reporting on controversial 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) is “prejudicial or likely to be prejudicial to public order, security, or likely to alarm public opinion or is likely to be prejudicial to public and national interest”.
In layman speak, this means the ministry considers the group’s reporting of 1MDB as harmful to public order as well as to public and national interest.
Here’s the rub: How is reporting on the shenanigans at 1MDB detrimental to public interest? Does it harm the public to gain awareness of such issues which ultimately harm them as citizens, voters and taxpayers?
The unexplained logic does not hold water. If anything the ongoing news coverage on 1MDB, not just by The Edge Media Group but also by KINIBIZ and other news media is beneficial for the larger public by virtue of keeping them abreast of what is going on.
It is this logic deficit that the ministry should explain urgently. Otherwise the suspension should be lifted as it amounts to censorship, plain and simple.
“And as French philosopher Claude Adrien Helvétius put it: ‘To limit the press is to insult a nation’.”
In any case, this weekend catch up on our best news, analyses and comments published over the past week:
Pick 1 — The RM34 million tudung empire. Headscarves, or tudungs in Malay, are a big business, as boutique tudung-maker Fareeda can attest. In a three-part series, KINIBIZ talks to its co-founder Aminuddin Basirron on how the business started and its astonishing following grew over the years. Read all about it here.
Pick 2 — It’s the RM2.6 bil, stupid. The 1MDB saga that has gripped the nation for the past year is slowly descending into weekly episodes of high farce. But the big question at the centre remains: Was RM2.6 billion transferred into the prime minister’s personal bank accounts? Read on here.
Pick 3 — 1MDB, a chance to get it right. The glaring lesson from the 1MDB saga is the inadequacy of reforms following previous controversies of a similar nature have contributed to the 1MDB crisis, writes academic and author Terence Gomez. Will genuine reforms be instituted and is there political will to do so? Read on here.
Pick 4 — When deals fail. Candymaker Cocoaland recently announced a prospective deal which eventually did not happen. Meantime, its shares rose and then fell, possibly burning investors. Should they have kept the potential offer price under wraps to curb speculation? Our resident cat ponders the question here.
Pick 5 — MCMC’s illogical decision against Sarawak Report. The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission’s decision to block Sarawak Report, because it might be reporting false news, is unfair and futile. The better way would have been legal action if they indeed peddled false information. Read here.
Pick 6 — Three media faux pas to avoid a la 1MDB. The controversy surrounding 1MDB has hit fever pitch with lawsuits, newspaper suspensions, and travel ban going around, among others. In all this, there are media lessons to be learned from how 1MDB acted in years prior. Read here.
Pick 7 — The Global Offensive against Uber. There is much furore on transport service app Uber around the world. Could the flaw in Uber’s plan be that it had not come in with a game plan that places it on the legal side of things? Despite popular support, the law remains the law and Uber needs to adapt. Read more here.
Pick 8 — Builders protest 25% wage hike for Indonesian labourers. The Master Builders Association of Malaysia is protesting a 25% wage increase for Indonesian workers in the construction sector as “not timely”, adding the decision by the Indonesian government was made unilaterally. Read more here.
Pick 9 — An Iran deal 10 years late. Recently, Iran reached a significant deal with the P5+1 (the United Nations Security Council’s five permanent members – China, Britain, France, Russia, and the US – plus Germany). But this is already 10 years late, argues former Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans. Read here.
Pick 10 — Greece’s debt may not be so daunting. Greece’s debt burden has taken on mythological attributes and questions about the dominant narrative have become a form of heresy, but the truth is that the debt may not be so daunting to deal with after all, argues Bloomberg View columnist Leonid Bershidsky here.
If you like these, here’s a great deal. Get much more for just 87 sen a day by clicking here. You’ll get full access to KINIBIZ online for your daily dose of business updates plus a free copy of our fortnightly print magazine for the promotional price of RM318 a year.
Because whether you prefer online or print, nothing starts your day like the sharpest read in town.
— By Khairie Hisyam Aliman, News Editor
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